Inked in the Steel City Series (4 page)

The doctor assured her that was normal and turned to a tray of gleaming silver instruments. The actual suturing was over within a couple short minutes. “That’s it,” he said as the nurse prepared a bandage. “This should heal up nicely.” He left a few moments later, leaving Mina, Jess and the teacher alone with the nurse, who handed Mina a yellow sheet printed with care instructions. “If you have any problems or questions, you can take her to your family physician or bring her back here.”

Jess nodded, accepting the papers she’d need to drop off at the front desk before they left the hospital. “Just a minute.” She turned to the teacher, who had risen from her chair and slung her purse over her shoulder. “Miss—?”

“Adams,” the woman said, extending a hand. “Ms. Lee, I really am sorry about all of this.”

Mina nodded. “Thank you for bringing Jess to the emergency room. I’ll be dropping by the school personally tomorrow to speak with the principal. I’m not going to let something like this go.”

****

“Ready?”

“As long as you promise you’re not going to put pictures of my boobs all over the internet.”

Karen laughed. “Promise. Just tilt your chin down a teeny bit. That’s perfect. Now hold that pose…”

Mina sat stone-still on a stool in front of a white paper background in Karen’s small photography studio. It was barely the size of her apartment, but it worked. Fortunately, it was also very private. Mina glanced at the window to her left just to make sure that the blinds were completely closed. After all, she was sitting topless in the middle of the room and she felt awkward enough without anyone seeing her. Her side and back faced the camera, exposing her new tattoo, and her front was facing the background, her breasts covered modestly by her arm. Being photographed in nothing but her jeans still felt weird, but any sort of top would have covered her tattoo at least partially.

“These are turning out great.”

Mina lifted her chin, peering over her shoulder at Karen, who was studying her camera’s screen. “Are we done?”

Karen laughed, as if Mina’s question had been a joke. “We’re just getting started.”

“How many ways are there to photograph one tattoo?”

Karen ignored her question. “You said you have to be out of here by a quarter ‘till three, right?”

Mina nodded. She didn’t have work today, but she still had to pick Jess up from school.

“OK. We’ll be done by then.”

Mina shifted on the stool. “That’s over an
hour
from now.”

Karen started snapping pictures again. “Look directly at me this time.”

“I thought these photos were just for Eric’s portfolio.” A shiver that had more to do with regret than the slight chill in the air raced down her spine as she thought of the sexy tattoo artist. “Does my face even need to be in any of them?” His blue eyes had been assaulting her memory at random intervals ever since she’d left him on the sidewalk two days before. Had he thought of her since then, or had she bored him to the point that he didn’t care that their date had been interrupted?

“I’m taking some extras.”

“Of course you are.” Karen never missed a chance to take full advantage of a willing – or at least semi-willing – model.

An hour later, Mina was dressed again and Karen was humming happily as she hooked her camera up to her laptop and began downloading the raw shots to her hard drive. “So today was Jess’s first day back at school?”

“Yeah. The doctor wrote her a note excusing her from school the next day, and I thought it would be best if she took advantage of it.”

Karen frowned. “Any word from the school on what they’re going to do to those girls?”

Mina bit the inside of her lip, stifling an impatient sigh. “The principal said he’d get back to me today.”

“But he hasn’t?”

“I’m planning on stopping by his office when I pick Jess up today, if he hasn’t called me by then.” She glanced at the clock on the computer screen. It was almost time for her to leave. “Speaking of which, I’d better go.”

“Don’t you want to see the pictures first?”

“Can you just e-mail me the best – whichever one you send to Eric? I’d like to see what he’ll be adding to his portfolio.”

“Sure. Good luck with the principal.”

Mina groaned. “I hate that he’s dragging his feet about this. How can he act like there’s anything to ‘investigate’ when those girls purposely hurt Jess out of jealousy?” It had taken some prying, but eventually Mina had gotten Jess to admit that the girls’ ringleader was a classmate of hers who reputedly wanted to attend the homecoming dance with Jess’s date. It was almost more than Mina could believe. Jess was beautiful and vivacious, but most high school boys would lack the courage to ask a wheelchair bound girl to a dance. Mina hadn’t met Jess’s date yet, but he had to be sweet – surely not the kind of boy who would fall for a catty bitch who’d assault a girl who couldn’t walk.

“For what it’s worth, I hope those girls get expelled and shipped off to some sort of military school for delinquents. Somewhere frigid, where it snows all year.”

Mina smiled despite her freshly rekindled anger. “Thanks.”

She left the small studio and stepped into the elevator, riding down to the first floor and exiting the building. As she thought of Karen sitting three stories above, choosing which photo to send to Eric, she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if it were the other way around and when she arrived home, there would be a picture of him in her inbox, shirtless with his tattoos exposed.

****

“So how was your first day back at school?” Mina tried to sound casual as she stood at the counter, slicing vegetables with a little more force than was strictly necessary. The sight of the bandage on Jess’s forehead renewed her anger each time she saw it, and she was still charged up from her second meeting with the principal.

“It was OK,” Jess said from where she was sitting at the kitchen table with her homework spread out in front of her.

“Did those girls bother you?” Mina knew she sounded like an interrogative mother, but she didn’t care.

Jess paused for a moment before answering. “No.”

“Really?”

Jess sighed. “They didn’t really
do
anything to me, but I heard them laughing at me – making jokes about my bandage and stuff like that.”

Mina cleaved a red pepper in half and proceeded to reduce it to tiny slivers almost too thin for even a salad. So much for dipping the strips in the mix she’d already whipped up.

“It’s not a huge deal,” Jess said. “They’re not going to be at school tomorrow, since you got them suspended.”

“I didn’t get them suspended. They got themselves suspended when they hurt you. And suspension isn’t a tough enough punishment. They should be expelled.”

“You already said that like a dozen times in the car.”

“That doesn’t make it any less true.” She sighed. Maybe she was taking her frustration out on Jess, who was the last person who deserved it. “Sorry. I’m not trying to hash it all out again. I’m just so pissed.”

Jess flipped a page in her notebook, scrawling something down. “It’s OK. At least you care.”

Mina nodded silently. She
did
care, which was more than Jess could possibly say about the woman she’d spent the first half of her life with: their mother, not to mention most of the foster parents she’d been stuck with for several years after that. The day Mina had turned eighteen had been the second best of her life. The very best had been when she’d obtained custody of Jess. She’d been twenty-one then. She hastily arranged the mutilated vegetables on a plate and sat it on the table beside Jess, along with a small dish of dipping sauce. “I’m going to take a break. Be back in a few minutes.”

“’Kay.”

Mina walked a few short steps, entered the bathroom and closed the door behind herself. Big enough to accommodate a wheelchair, the room was more generously sized than those in most of the apartment complex’s units. Sunlight filtered through a high window, tinted green by the leafy potted plants she’d placed there in lieu of a curtain. She stripped down to her panties (she’d foregone a bra, opting for a top with a soft built-in shelf bra for the sake of her tattoo), draping her cotton shirt and jeans over the shower rod before surveying her left side in the mirror.

Her tattoo was still faintly red around the edges, though she didn’t seem to have bruised much. Squirting a small dollop of antibacterial soap into her palm, she ran her hand under warm water before pressing it to her ribs. Gently, she massaged her side, her soap-slickened fingers gliding easily over her skin. The curves and flourishes of the vines were raised, as were the flowers that blossomed on them. The design stood out vivid and textured against her smooth olive skin. It hadn’t begun to truly heal or even lose its scab yet, but it was already obvious that Eric had done a beautiful job.

Did he think so too? Karen might not have even sent him a photo yet, but if she had, what had he thought when he’d seen it? She cupped a handful of warm water and let it stream over her side, washing away the soap. Taking a clean towel from the small bathroom closet, she patted her skin dry. She loved the tattoo. If only she didn’t suspect that she just might be able to feel the same way about the man who’d done it for her.

****

“Karen? Is everything OK?” Mina held her phone as she twisted the top off her bottled water. Karen didn’t usually call her at work. Fortunately, she’d just clocked out for her lunch break.

“Everything’s amazing. Guess what?”

Her water bottle cap spun off the table and bounced onto the floor. She stooped to pick it up, and when she straightened in her seat, a peroxide-blond woman was eyeing her from across the room. Ashley. She glared down her button nose at Mina as if talking on her phone while being off the clock and in the small break room was a crime. Unfortunately, lunch wasn’t the only time of day Mina was forced to spend in Ashley’s presence. Ashley was the bank’s newest teller, which meant that Mina usually passed the entire day in the small area behind the counter with her. “What?”

“Eric loved the pictures,” Karen said breathlessly.

Mina’s heart fluttered, her senses spiking at the sudden mention of Eric. “Pictures? I thought you only sent him one.”

Karen made a sound of dismissal. “There were at least a dozen shots that turned out great. I sent him the eight I thought were best.”

“OK…” She resisted the urge to say something idiotic, like ‘what did he say’?

“Have you checked your e-mail lately?”

Mina shook her head before realizing that the gesture was useless. Ashley smirked at her from across the room, as if she’d noticed. She probably had. The nosy girl spent most of her time scrutinizing her co-workers – particularly Mina – watching for something to laugh at or make a snide comment about. “No. I didn’t think you’d have the pictures ready so soon.” Karen insisted on editing her photos to perfection before sending them to anyone. Mina hadn’t thought it necessary for a simple snapshot of her tattoo, but she’d known that wouldn’t stop Karen.